Quote:
Originally Posted by tnfoto
Flowers, during his final major league stop with the 1956 Phillies.
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From baseball-reference.com I found out that Ben Flowers' career MLB 1951-1956; lifespan (1927-2009) took a very convoluted path over a period of about 12 1/2 months in 1956 & 1957.
After finishing the 1955 season and beginning he 1956 season with the St. Louis Cardinals things get pretty interesting.
5/11/1956: Flowers is traded by the Cardinals to the Phillies with pitchers Harvey Haddix and Stu Miller for pitchers Murry Dickson and Herman Wehmeier.
After working 32 games in relief with an uncreditable 5.71 e.r.a. Flowers pitched in what is to be his final MLB game on 9/21/1956 at the age of 29.
10/15/1956: 5 days after the Yankees win Game 7 of the World Series over the Brooklyn Dodgers, Flowers is purchased from the Phillies by the Kansas City Athletics.
4/1/1957: Flowers is unceremoniously returned to the Phillies by the Athletics.
4/8/1957: In a move just prior to Opening Day, Flowers is traded by the Phillies along with Elmer Valo and Ron Negray, plus minor leaguers Melvin Gaho and Tim Harkness (later a L.A. Dodger & a NY Met) to the Brooklyn Dodgers, plus $75,000 for shortstop Chico Fernandez.
5/24/1957: The Brooklyn Dodgers trade Flowers to the NY Yankees for Jim Fridley.
Without ever returning to the big leagues, Ben Flowers works as a Yankees farmhand at their AAA clubs for four seasons before retiring (1957-1960.) He pitched for all three minor leagues that at that time were designated as AAA level leagues. In those years he pitched for Richmond (International League), Los Angeles (Pacific Coast league) in 1957 the year before Los Angeles became a big league city and Denver in the now defunct American Association.
PS: The area of North Carolina where Flowers was born, grew up, lived and died is famous as the birthplace of screen actress, Ava Gardner. Flowers is buried not far from the burial place of Ms. Gardner and not far from the Ava Gardner museum, which commemorates the actress' career..